## Emil POV After I had done all that I felt was necessary for Solomon’s wounds, I ended up sitting on the floor with my eyes closed while leaning against the armrest of the couch for most of the night. Not a position conducive to sleep, but I slept anyway, and quite soundly at that. Hearing two people’s steady breathing and occasional murmur in sleep must have assuaged the ravages of my heart from the previous day. Solomon seemed to have regained his bearing the next morning. He commented on the first aid I had given him; I told him that with all my personal experiences of getting hurt on my old job, I’d like to think I had become reasonably good at handling injuries, all while my chest constricted from the reflexive thought of who it usually was that treated me when I got home bloody and beaten up. After the others arrived at the diner, Jonny started an extensive argument with Solomon, the details of which escaped me. It sounded like something had happened yesterday, the roots of which went back much further. They were still practically going at each other’s throat when Duke Egelon called in: Aurelian was summoned to Hell to meet with him, and an imp construction crew was sent in to repair the diner. In the meantime, he wanted the rest of us to split up into teams and hang up posters advertising the diner around town. I almost got in a confrontation with Isha as we both raced to the food truck; thankfully, Leslie, who had just been appointed provisional manager in Aurelian’s absence, persuaded Isha to accompany Jonny using her newly gained ability of puppeteering a condiment homunculus instead of heading out herself. I watched with some degree of awe as she created the homunculus out of our kitchen supplies, and Jonny happily dressed up the child-shaped pile of goop with spare clothes. It warmed my heart to see those two get along so well. As for my team, Solomon and myself both agreed that we should take on South Marlowe, so that the other two groups wouldn’t have to deal with whatever might be going on down there. As I drove us to the designated spots, we noticed a few recurring graffiti tags that looked like symbols of local gangs, which I mentally took stock of. Solomon almost got jumped in an alleyway. While I didn’t believe normal humans would pose any sort of real threat to him, I still sighed out of frustration at my inability to step out of the truck and stand beside him.